“Hey—I'm about to fold! What do we do?!”

Under Ruixiduo and Ophicoya’s strikes, coming like waves hammering a reef, Faya’s mana, mind, and muscle were draining to dust.

She was only a fresh initiate of the Sacred Realm, a light mage at the first step; holding that storm for this long was already a candle burning at both ends.

“Uh… should I switch to defense too?”

Seeing sweat bead like rain on Faya’s brow, Paluna hesitated, voice thin as a thread.

“No.”

Eastern Moon Aixue cut in, sharp as a blade of frost. “Paluna, you’re one of our main hitters. If you drop offense to shield, our line will crumble like wet clay.”

“The Guildmaster speaks true. Without Lady Paluna’s main force, I and the Guildmaster won’t hold back that undead and demon,” Yuyi Mengliu added, knocking down a few lightning serpents like swatting vipers from a branch.

“Tch, fine! Faya, hang on. I swear reinforcements will be here any moment.” Paluna bit down hard, anger sparking, and plunged back into the fray like a hawk diving.

“Ugh… I hope so. I don’t know if I’ve got a few more minutes in me.” Faya forced a crooked smile, then scraped up the last coals of mana in her core to keep the barrier from flickering out.

Minutes trickled by like sand through fingers.

The light curtain, woven of pure radiance, thinned to gauze. Faya’s grip on it shook like a tired lamp in the wind.

“This won’t do! Guildmaster, Lady Paluna—take my share and hold them for thirty seconds.” Yuyi Mengliu’s eyes hardened like tempered steel. “I’ll rouse the Flameblade’s full might and unleash a Netherflame technique. That should ease the strain on Lady Faya.”

“But…” Eastern Moon Aixue started, then caught the iron resolve in Mengliu’s gaze and nodded. “All right. We’ll cover you.”

“No problem—just be quick, Mengliu. We can’t hold the sky forever.”

“I know.”

Without Mengliu, Eastern Moon Aixue and Paluna bore Ruixiduo and Ophicoya’s onslaught like two trees in a gale, branches snapping, roots straining.

“Hmph. Even if you awaken an artifact, so what? Against absolute power, trinkets are dust,” Mina scoffed, flicking her eyes at Mengliu like swatting a fly. Then she snarled at Ruixiduo and Ophicoya, “Hey, why are your blows so soft? Didn’t you eat? Focus.”

“Forgive me, Master. I shall exert my full strength.”

“I wanted to play a bit more, but since Lady Mina insists… I’ll go all out. Hee-hee.”

With Ruixiduo and Ophicoya finally fighting like thunderheads breaking, Eastern Moon Aixue and Paluna staggered, a breath from being pierced and falling like autumn leaves.

As for Faya—if not for the fear that dropping her shield would expose her friends to slaughter, she’d have already collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.

Half a minute vanished in the heat of battle like a spark in the wind.

Just as Eastern Moon Aixue, Faya, and Paluna were about to buckle, Yuyi Mengliu flared—an aura surging up like a volcano, fierce as the Holy Peak.

Purple-blue flames sheathed her and the Flameblade, a veil of fire coiling around her like a spirit’s armor.

“I still underestimated the Flameblade.” Mengliu sighed, breath a wisp of steam. “In this state, I can last maybe a minute.”

She stepped forward, slow and steady, like walking across coals.

Eastern Moon Aixue and Paluna flinched from the heat, retreating to either side like birds dodging a blaze.

“Netherflame Style: Inferno Domain!”

Centered on Mina’s position, firewalls rose like towering cliffs, tens of meters high, encircling Mina, Ruixiduo, and Ophicoya in a burning field.

“This flame… no, it’s Netherflame! Be careful!” Mina’s face blanched like paper; she barked orders before the heat could bite deeper.

“Yes, Master.”

“Mm.”

Grim-faced, Ruixiduo and Ophicoya began peeling back the hellish walls, step by careful step, like surgeons working under lava light.

“I won’t let you have your way. Netherflame Style: Rain of Fire Arrows!”

Mengliu swept the Flameblade upward; countless blazing arrows bloomed above the domain, a red storm massing, then whooshed down like monsoon rain toward Mina’s trio.

“Damn it! Being pushed this far by a mere mid-stage Sacred Realm…” Mina sucked in a long breath, forcing calm into her chest, then sketched a shield around herself with the scraps of mana she’d regained.

“Ophicoya, find a way to block those arrows.”

“I’ll try. Thunder Net!”

A vast net crackled into being beneath the falling storm, thunder snarling through its cords, trying to catch every shaft.

It held half—then tore like rotted silk, shredded by the rain of Netherflame.

“Netherflame is vicious! Heaven-Thunder Shield!”

For a minute, Mengliu’s burst burned like noon at midsummer, and Eastern Moon Aixue’s side finally breathed like swimmers breaking the surface.

Only a minute. When the flare ebbed, Mengliu sagged to a crouch like a doll with its strings cut, gulping air, her small body trembling as if winter had crept under her skin.

“Mengliu, are you okay?”

“Yuyi, hold on. I’ll cast a recovery spell for you right now!”

“Rest first, Mengliu… Ah—what do we do now?” Panic fluttered in the trio, hearts thudding like trapped birds.

Mina had no intention of giving them a breath. “Hah, finally broke that damned firewall. Keep the pressure up!”

“As you command—Soul-Extinguishing Orb, Spirit Stinger, Furyflame Burst…”

“Right—Heaven-Rending Tempest, Flashwind Dark Thunder, Netherchill Lightning…”

Magic flooded toward them like a broken dam, the sky black with sigils and light.

“Is this how we die?” Eastern Moon Aixue, Faya, Yuyi Mengliu, and Paluna stared up at the swarm of high-tier spells, hope wilting like flowers under hail.

And then—

“Whew. Looks like I made it. Sword of Light and Darkness: Yin–Yang Reversal!”

An eight-trigram sigil spun into being above them, glowing in black and white like day and night intertwined, and in an instant, the skyful of magic twisted away to elsewhere.

“That… that’s Miss Qianji!”

“Thank the heavens—talk about last-second. Good thing it’s Qianji.”

“So grateful, Qianji.”

“Lady Yumigawa Senki, we’re fortunate you arrived.”

Yes—the one who saved them was Yumigawa Senki, just now stepping onto the field like the moon rising.

As for how the battle ended after that, I suppose it goes without saying, doesn’t it?